A Broken Link
by Vexed
Summary: An alternate ending for Wind Waker. I was disappointed with the way the game ended, so I wrote this. Enjoy.


Broken Link

Link rose, his head spinning. Blood ran down his face from the wound Gannon's blade had left. Gannon himself lay dead, a statue with Link's sword buried in his skull. Link had won…but for what? The king stood, holding the triforce, the waves above crashing down to wash away the ancient Kingdome of Hyrule, the kingdom he had fought so hard to resurrect. Link had dreamed of bringing his people here the moment he had first laid eyes upon Hyrule, to finally have something other than a miserable chain of islands to call their own, and now it would all be destroyed, his hopes swept aside with the waves because some old man thought it was for the best!

"What have you done?!" Link cried, "There are still people down there! The spell is lifted! They could have started their lives again!"

The king simply shook his head. "You are too young to understand. Let the past be washed away, so that you may live your own lives, without the hardship my kingdom seems destined to bring," with that he turned his back on Link and stared into the coming oblivion, determined to die with his people.

A teleportation circle opened behind Link, and the princess stepped beside it. "Link, hurry, we have to leave!" she yelled, the sound of the falling waves growing louder, but Link refused to go, refused to let all he had done, everything he had endured be for nothing. His eye caught sight of the triforce, not yet vanished. It would soon disappear, the moment its task was fulfilled and Hyrule destroyed.

Link ran to Gannon's petrified body, and, with a fierce pull, tore the master sword free. "Link," Tetra called, "what are you doing? We have to get out of here!"

He looked back only once, and looked Tetra in the eye. "I won't let it end like this! This has to be stopped!" he cried, and with a push, sent Tetra into the teleporter, back where she would be safe. Wind and spray swept across the castle, the roar of the waves was nearly deafening. Link strode across the turrets, moving toward the king. He knew what he had to do. He would not let the people of Hyrule die, nor deny his people the kingdom they deserved! The sword grew heavy in his hand. The king began to turn, alerted to Link's approach, but too late, with both arms Link thrust hard, driving the blade between the old man's shoulders. A blinding pain shot through his arms, and the sword which was never to be used against an innocent, clattered to the ground, covered in the king's blood. The king fell, his age made his end come quickly. Link could not feel his arms, but could move his right. He stared at the King for a moment, lying in a growing pool of blood. "You brought this on your self!" he shouted above the roar, and then, quieter, with grim determination, "Die alone if you cannot bear to live."

Link staggered past the king's body, and reached for the triforce. The golden relic flashed brightly, and, its power fusing with him, obeyed his wish. The golden light of the triforce spread outward, meeting the lethal downpour, and repelled it. Still the light spread, until the sea itself was pushed back, and all of what was once Hyrule was immersed, for the first time in countless ages, in brilliant sunlight. The islands towered as the mountains they once were, and link stood in the center. The triforce had disappeared, but had left some of its power. Link had changed, his body now grown from the power he had been given. A scar ran down his face from the wound Gannon had left. The hands he had used to plunge the sacred sword into the king's back were now marked with the blood red symbol of the murderer, a curse given by the Master Sword, which had now disappeared.

The people of Hyrule gathered around their kingdom's capitol in a great host, the evil that had once plagued them now gone. There they found Link, the very image of the hero they had prayed for, come once again. He told his tale, of the spell placed upon Hyrule, of the great sea, of the islands, the tale of his journey and his battles, his battle with Gannon, and, lastly, the end of the mad king.

The people hailed him as a hero, savior of Hyrule. Emissaries were sent into the mountains to bring his people into their new land. They came in droves, marveling at the kingdom that had to them been mere legend. Tetra, however, last in the bloodline of the kings of Hyrule, could not be found, though the search lasted many months. All that was found was her crown, discovered with her abandoned ship, now marooned on a mountainside.

In her absence, it fell to the people of Hyrule to choose a new king...and who better than their savior to lead them in this time of rebirth?

And so, Link assumed the throne, king of all Hyrule. His court was vast, and his dominion covered everything between the mountain walls that formed his kingdom's boarders, from the desert lands of the gerado, to the vast lakes of the zoras, even the gorons in their mountains flew his banners.

All seemed well…but the age was not a golden one. Over the years, Hyrule endured many hardships; rival nations sought a claim of this fabled golden kingdom which had risen above the waves of the great sea. But Link would not let his kingdom fall.

The gorons provided iron and blades, forged deep in their mountains, the geradoe's he used as assassins and spies, and with the zoaras under his command he controlled the seas. War after war was fought, Link defending his kingdom again and again, each time emerging victorious...but war leaves scars deeper than that of any blade.

Over time, Hyrule changed, as did its king. The golden kingdom became a land of conquest. Hyrule spread beyond its ancient mountain borders. Lead by their Savior King, whose life was made seemingly unending by the power imbued by the sacred triforce, the warriors of Hyrule subdued all who rose against them.

Link, hardened by war, and by deeds of time long past, grew dark tempered. His rule was unquestioned. Those who resented him named him the undying tyrant; though always in whispered tones, they prayed for the return of the true hero. His spies were many, any who defied him were punished, and Hyrule was the golden kingdom no longer.

So began the Age of Conquest, and the Hyrulian Empire!


End file.
